How ungrateful are these people in East Palestine! Dont they know that Joe Biden is busy giving blank check to Ukraine, who elected him to represent their interests. Ungrateful Americans should know their place, that is to pay taxes and shut up.
Not without sarcasm, if anyone had any illusions, now little our politicians care about Americ…
How ungrateful are these people in East Palestine! Dont they know that Joe Biden is busy giving blank check to Ukraine, who elected him to represent their interests. Ungrateful Americans should know their place, that is to pay taxes and shut up.
Not without sarcasm, if anyone had any illusions, now little our politicians care about Americans, hopefully this illusion has been shattered last week. Entire administrations has been avoiding Ohio like it is infected with plague. Mayor Pete is nowhere to be seen. Jesus, did we ever hand such incompetent person in government?!? Kamala is missing in action last 2 years, when I thing, better to keep it that way, she is probably only person who is even more incapable than Mayor Pete.
But cherry on the cake was Joe Biden, to have audacity to go for Photoshoot to Ukraine, while we have disaster at home and people in need. He is American President. At this point, our congress will help everyone but not people at home.
Sometimes I think that we live under occupation, there is no other way in explaining, how little our politicians care for problems at home.
It gets worse. The latest news is that we're handing over policy power to the WHO so they have total control over our country if (when) they declare pandemic again. We're watching our representatives hand our sovereignty and our democracy away to corrupt, unelected international organizations while they hardly even pay lip service to disasters at home. While Joe Biden declares that "democracy stands" because he's escalating the war in Ukraine.
That's the same WHO, btw, that said closing borders to the virus was racism.
This should be the biggest news in the country. It's their backdoor to global government whether we want it or not.
Victor Orban has his issues, but at least he knows he's the President of Hungary and his job is to protect and defend and promote the interests of Hungarians.
President Biden seems to think he's President of the world. And he doesn't appear to even like most of his deplorable fellow Americans, let alone want to defend their interests.
I think he just likes to cut a figure, wherever the opportunity arises. He often has a totally genuine looking smile when capering about making an ass of himself. Very unique. Clownish.
EPA and DOT arrived on site within hours, and are still there. The White House offered federal funding nearly immediately. Evacuation orders occurred. Homes and soils were and continue to be tested. In a situation like this, with potential disastrous consequences and a plethora of details to be addressed...no one will be satisfied. Is everyone satisfied, no. Did some things go wrong? Yes. Are people right to be upset? Yes. But this article and many comments here make it sound like no help was offered and the various level of governments have walked away. That is crazy. This simply further politicizes a terrible situation. These sorts of articles ought to outline what happened, EVERYTHING that has happened in response, and WHAT still needs addressed. Interviewing a few obviously, and rightly so, traumatized citizens without also including what is happening on the ground, is bait for those who want to further politicize and deepen the divides between us. One obvious failure of this sort of coverage is lack of mention of the lack of action in Congress for regulation (dirty word) and oversight (costs money...taxes) of these companies, which is way toooo leftist for many commenters here to stomach. Why not put Vance on the spot and ask him what his plans are to make the 1000s of derailments a year a thing of the past? Ask Trump why he lifted regs specific to rail safety during his tenure? And yes....absolutely press democratic legislators as well for comments and answers to these questions! This country’s infrastructure has been deteriorating for years while corporations using it continue to profit.
Thank you. i was going to post a similar comment but you covered it. "The Free Press" is mostly still just a commentary site, not "hard journalism". Running a piece like this that slants the viewpoint from the right and offers just about zero actual facts about the situation but just repeats claims about how the Biden Administration is "neglecting" East Palestine is not "journalism", it's commentary, and it's hard to see what the purpose of the piece is other than to inflame the partisan slant of the commentariat here.
I'm glad to see pushback against this narrative in some of the comments however. I think it's fair to criticize Pete B. for not being on site sooner as a symbolic visit, but being honest, that is just PR. Being "on site" doesn't mean there's no agency presence or coordination happening. And weighing Biden's trip to Ukraine on the anniversary of the war there, and the symbolism of NATO, as "proof" that Biden doesn't care about this town in a Red State is a pretty cheap shot. But if this site wants to be viewed as "journalism", they should try doing more actual "journalism" (aka 'factual reporting') versus "narrative commentary".
Oh so Bari Weiss is now just a right wing nut case? What's 'hard journalism" in your book? The laughably biased and mostly wrong NY Times? Bezos's establishment mouthpiece? Come on, do tell. And btw, we don't need the senile imbecile to "prove" he despises places such as East Palestine. He's told us so. And that white working class people in "flyover" country are nothing but domestic terrorists who want to torture and degrade black people. As much as I despise him, Biden is only a puppet, long into his decline. His supporters and apologists are much, much worse.
Sure they showed up. And then proceeded to engage in some of the most questionable, boneheaded and contradictory acts imaginable. So excuse me if I view you as a DNC apologist. This was a significant industrial catastrophe. I find it funny to recall the angst and wailing that arose over Bhopal but the sniggering indifference that affects a working class white community in "flyover country."
Good comment. Don't totally agree with your proposed solution, but I agree with your observations. I had the feeling while reading the article that it was one-sided - designed to stir me up without any balance for the kinds of things that are likely going on but not getting much notice. People want instant results like babies. It's a major accident and takes time to deal with it. The high profile agencies acted stupidly in terms of their appearance of inactivity and indifference. But mostly they just get in the way anyway. Remember all those stupid photo op visits to Katrina and even more recently Ft Myers? So they're damned if they don't and damned if they do. In the long run it's the lower level activities that count. That's what they should be reporting on. Maybe those are inadequate, but I didn't get the feeling from this article that they knew what was happening other than listening to MSM news and repeating it.
I agree with most of your comments. On the high-profile agencies….the DOT and EPA and FEMA are such agencies, I you’d agree. And on the ground stuff certainly gets things done. But these agencies are often highly involved on the ground, scientists and techs, in both determination of cause itself, and the ensuing cleanup. Any importantly, they fund these activities with federal dollars. Locals and States would rarely have needed expertise or funding. I think I get what you’re saying though, which is why all the hysteria over high-profile people (vs agencies) like Buttigieg and for sure Biden, not being there immediately bugs me. At their level it shows high level concern, which means a lot to people who are suffering. On the other hand…it is really a gesture that doesn’t mean much to the actual fix….those agency people working in the field. This not always true, but most often I’d think. I’m waiting to hear more before I criticize too loudly, the response by agencies.
Yeah we gotta give the agencies credit for being science but we also have to wait for them to do the science. Because it’s science and they have to press special buttons.
At no point should we question federal expertise. They are the science experts.
Hey…if you got an idea of how to get railroad corporations to play it straight…have at it Kevin! Heck! If you want to pitch in and run your municipal sewer district, go ahead. If you want to figure out how to remove the tumor from your neighbor’s stomach, more power to you. Want that gas and oil to keep your wheels turning, you don’t need help. if you want to develop a medicine for your dad’s heart troubles, why not? Who needs an expert? Who needs government ? Who needs science? This whole anti-science/education/ expert crap is absurd. No one suggested we never question expertise. In reality if these are things that interest you….go ahead. Study organic and inorganic chemistry, physics, calculus, engineering, hydrology, toxicology…stuff like that for 6 to 8 years and you could do any of the above, even help figure out how clean up East Palestine for the folks suffering there.
Really? How about the demented dwarf who brayed "oy represent soy-yence" and his Greek Chorus of moronic acolytes? No he doesn't represent science. Science involves constant questions. The science is never settled. A real scientist - not a fraud like Fauci - observed "We have found it of paramount importance that in order to progress we must recognize the ignorance and leave room for doubt. Scientific knowledge is a body of statements of varying degrees of certainty — some most unsure, some nearly sure, none absolutely certain.” Richard Feynman.
Of course. You’re the victim, persecuted by my words. You sound brainwashed and fed by your chosen echo chamber, unable to respond rationally or without insults to those who might disagree with you. Again, Congress (I think I mentioned both sides of isle) has the power to both fix this and prevent or reduce future tragedies in the future: pass and fund infrastructure bills and fund regulating agencies to enforce safety measures. That’s the only way capitalism can work. Every one of us needs to see the fundamental problem and vote to fix it.
Exactly how do you regulate wheel bearings??? Btw, if your "vote to fix it" doesn't work, then what? Seems like one Party had all the power for the past 2 years and did squat with it. Republicans had no power to oppose Mayor Pete's calls for increased railroad safety regulation before the vote on the "Infrastructure" bill. Oh wait, he didn't make any.
In fact, you can regulate brakes on trains. In 2018, the DOT repealed a train safety rule established in 2015 that required installing electronically controlled pneumatic (ECP) brakes on trains that carried highly flammable hazardous materials. These brakes safely stop trains much much faster than regular brakes. I do vote to fix things, and was happy Congress passed the Infrastructure bill during 2021. I would call that “squat” as you say. Whether or how it addresses rail lines I don’t know, but I do know it funds upgrades to airport safety systems and bridges, thank god. I won’t go into the partisan battles fought to pass it, but in the end it was passed with only 32 GOP supporters. I don’t know what was fought over, included, or thrown out. All that said, the brake legislation was repealed in 2018 by the Trump administration because costs were touted to outweigh benefits. I will add that this particular train in Ohio was not carrying “highly flammable hazardous materials”, by definition, 😳, so wouldn’t have been required to have ECP brakes. Well…That’s one hugely glaring problem I think we could agree on!! So no, this train would not have been covered by that regulation anyhow, and more importantly we now know trains carrying even more dangerous flammables aren’t required to have these ECO brakes now either. Think about it. That’s the problem. The last decades have been increasingly anti fed regulation. We will see how the clean up goes as time goes by…it takes time to sort out these environmental disasters.
"So no, this train would not have been covered by that regulation anyhow, and more importantly we now know trains carrying even more dangerous flammables aren’t required to have these ECO brakes now either. "
In other words , a patent red herring and lying DNC talking point You, to your credit, have the honesty to concede that. The DNC flacks do not.
I said wheel bearings, not breaks. Trains could also just go slower, but whatever your preferred solution that is added cost that consumers will be made to bear.
"The last decades have been increasingly anti fed regulation." Says who? According to the Federal Register, 3000-4000 new rules and regulations are implemented every year.
Well over 2000 chemicals a year are introduced for use in this country, and the EPA is charged with, along with other duties, reviewing not only these but a 60000 chemical back log. This is just chemical safety and use. This is a huge country with a lot of issues, industry, transportation, airlines, education, agriculture…an so on. Many of these new rules and regulations deal with modifying and tweaking and yes, weakening past regs. Let’s watch what the new House works on.
Why is it up to the House to do anything with Federal regulations? The EPA is under the Executive Branch. If Joe Biden had wanted to significantly expand the EPA in the past 2 years he could have easily done it just like he did with the IRS. Seems like you keep wanting to steer this toward some murky political point.
The person you are referring to is not fed by the echo chamber, Ann - he feeds it. His last sentence above in his response to your previous post is his preferred comeback to anyone who is but a molecule left of his position. And his modus operandi of rabid riposte gives cover for other commenters to act the same..
Sure Kevin can be a bit rough at times. But his "rabid ripostes" (not bad) do serve to lay bare and ridicule the hypocrisy and lies of the left. Which makes him a favorite here.
I'm glad you liked that. I went into my thesaurus for that one..
Of course there's hypocrisy on the left, I try to fight it everyday - and of course Fox has that problem too.
The problem I have is that I know that Kevin is very smart and articulate as hell, if he wants to be. But that is not what he wants to project here. He chooses to use his skills (considerable) to attack and ridicule. That not only stifles meaningful debate to whom he's addressing, he's stifling himself, imo..
That illusion was shattered when they mandated an experimental gene therapy on the population for profit and Lord knows why else. Our current leaders and the global elite that control them do not care about any human life but their own. We are being lead by crooks and demons. Most can't see it and those that do fear speaking it or they will get canceled. Anyone still under the illusion that our leaders care about us, well, they are living in a fantasy world.
The only reason you would burn this, set this fire and attract all of this attention, is if it’s an absolute catastrophe when this eventually leeches into the groundwater.
Not exactly. The vinyl chloride can spontantously polymerize releasing a very significant amount of heat and produce numerous chlorinated aromatics, which are carcinogens and other chlorinated materials that are poisonous, not to mention hydrochloric acid. Burning it is terrible, but likely less dangerous than allowing it to react on its own. Either way is a catastrophe.
Burning it oxidizes the materials, so fewer noxious chemicals are produced., but certainly not zero. An uncontrolled polymerization could cause an explosion that would send out a lot of stuff over a much wider area. A controlled burn is likely one accepted method of destroying vinyl chloride.
I just learned that butyl acrylate and ethylhexyl acrylate were also on that train. These are also chemicals that polymerize and release heat, not to mention their extreme irritation to skin and eyes. Carcinogens as well.
It’s not an either/or. Biden supporting Ukraine’s defense against Russian imperialism has no impact whatsoever on whether the government in Ohio is responding appropriately to the train derailment in this mispronounced Ohio town.
If DeWine did drink tap water, how legitimate is the concern over water quality? I think you live under the occupation of a continuing civil war. The tribalism is remarkable.
The water is unsafe because the President is in Europe when he should be in America reassuring the children who are members of the other tribe.
President Trump, who was in fact a very good POTUS was relentlessly attacked throughout his Presidency because he is not a member of the tribe which dishonestly and stupidly controls the narrative.
After observing those attacks since 2016 I now see members of the Republican tribe, including those who work in the media, engaging in the same kind of dishonest, clueless and hysterical attacks on the leader of the Democrat tribe.
Yes Biden has been a disaster, but not everything he has done has been wrong.
It is hard to appreciate anything he has done as right, when so much wrong overpowers it. Pete Buttigieg as already noted, has an elitist attitude and is hands off at 30,000 feet. Pete speaks well but it incompetent. Kamala speaks poorly and is laughably incompetent. We have got to get rid of this crew.
The blame for this one is non-partisan: everyone gets some blame. As for your defense of Trump, remember that his deregulation of the railroads started this ball rolling. Biden and company deserve the criticism they are getting, but it burns me a bit to see Trump making political hay out of the consequences of his favoritism toward corrupt corporations.
Tort law has led to greater protection than government regulations by far. Sue the crap out of those responsible if it is due to some kind of negligence. And if they want to make one change to improve safety further it would be to be able to hold corporate officers personally liable for negligence. In my opinion that would make a world of difference. It would work better than any amount of government regulations which often just provide butt-cover when things fail; they say we followed the regulations and show where these were (inevitably) inadequate.
Jeff -- The problem is that tort litigation is enormously expensive, far too expensive for the average American. There is class action, but usually only the lawyers make out well.
If you have a strong case it's not that expensive at all - and usually contingency based. PI lawyers work that way all the time. I agree - class action lawsuits are a waste of time for everyone but the lawyers (both sides) and drive costs up for everyone else.
Oh, I agree. Often the biggest cost is the emotional turmoil and stress from uncertainties that drag on seemingly forever. The stress involved is unimaginable to those who haven't been through it.
The problem with this view is that government, media, and corporations have made it impossible to trust the government, media, or corporations. It may be objectively true that a wheel failed and that this derailment would not have been preventable. But how will we ever know? None of these organizations -- not the government, not the media, not the corporate railroad -- has any credibility left in the bank. Americans have seen truth too many times made a casualty to personal and corporate profiteering and to furthering political ambitions.
For example, the CDC, DEA, and politicians have taken adequate pain control away from innocent, legitimate pain patients in the name of repairing an opioid epidemic that has only skyrocketed in response to their unjustified prohibition. The experts who wrote the guidelines for the CDC calling for stripping down opioid prescriptions, EVEN FOR PEOPLE WHO LEGITIMATELY NEED THEM, turn out to have had all sorts of financial conflicts, including being positioned to make tons of money from anti-opioid activism. The result? States saw a huge opportunity to make money in lawsuits against drug manufacturers. But ordinary people are being given Tylenol now immediately following painful surgeries like knee replacements and bypasses. Cancer patients are not even getting adequate pain control anymore. Predictable, preventable suffering is widespread and ongoing. Ordinary, non-junkies are literally dying from untreated pain now -- from strokes, from heart attacks, from suicide, and from overdosing on the fentanyl-laced street drugs some turn to in desperation. Does anyone believe DEA members, CDC bigwigs, or our corrupted leaders can't get actual pain control when they or their loved ones need it? Of course not. Being punished simply for being in pain is for ordinary Americans with no voice and no connections.
In another example, back in 2015, the captured FAA and airlines imposed new, highly concentrated airplane routes on cities and neighborhoods around the country. These new routes were designed to save the airlines massive amounts of money in fuel costs by starting descents much further from the airport and to decrease spacing between landing planes so as to increase the number of flights that could be supported by the system. The result for some people on the ground was that airplane noise was massively increased in neighborhoods -- and not neighborhoods where people had knowingly bought homes near an airport, but neighborhoods an hour to an hour and a half away from airports. Where I live, about an hour and a half away from SFO in a once-peaceful mountain community we specifically moved to because of the quiet, we went from hearing planes four or five times a week to 300 planes a day. Sometimes, the noise from one plane is still audible when the next one starts. But the airlines, which lobbied the FAA hard for this change and which have profited from it, cannot be sued because they're only "flying where the FAA tells them to fly." And the FAA can't be sued because everything it does is for "safety" (you know, except when it comes to forcing airlines to provide leg space adequate to allow for fast deplaning in an emergency). The airlines profit enormously, and none of that profit is shared with the people who bear the brunt of the real cost. And FAA executives continue regularly to retire from their government jobs to walk into the waiting, very cushy, $400K-and-up jobs at the airlines they've "regulated."
And on and on and on and on.
So, if some government agency announced tomorrow that yes, indeed, it really WAS just a wheel bearing that caused this tragic train derailment, nothing anyone could have done, really, a tragedy but not a preventable tragedy, no need to blame the government or the corporation in this instance -- my immediate response would be cynical, whole-body skepticism. And that's not because I'm a conspiracy theorist: It's because I have learned from repeated experience that I cannot trust the government when it says anything -- even something that might be objectively true -- that is obviously in its own interest.
Trust is gone. I don't know how we'll ever get it back.
I don't know how we can, short of a country-wide, consolidated movement to entirely (or majority) replace the existing-party chokehold on representative government all at once. The system we have has efficiently separated us all into small, powerless silos where we have no power and no voice.
The visual image I have of this is of herds of cattle being broken up and driven into separated pens. We bleat and run around in the limited space we have, banging into each other. We aren't allowed out of our pens, just driven in chutes from one to the next, and we can make no headway and have no effect whatsoever on the cowboys sitting on the rails of the pens looking down on us in amusement.
Take my FAA example above ... as a "non-constituent," I'm not even allowed to send an email to the congresspeople who have actual power relating to the country's transportation regulations -- because even though I'm deeply and personally impacted by the laws they write, I don't live in their district. Gatekeepers refuse email access and strip out "geographically inappropriate" snail mail. I'm only allowed to communicate with the representative of my own very limited district/region (and, of course, not even really with her -- only with her underpaid assistants and computer algorithms that scan our letters for keywords and send pre-scripted responses that require no actual engagement, time, or even awareness from the person who supposedly represents us).
I think we'd have much more actually representative government if all of us could choose the person in Congress who represents us. If a Congress person from Florida represents my interests and my political views more closely than my own Congress person in California, I should be able to choose to be a constituent of the Congress person in Florida even though I live in California. The representatives with the most constituents should have more power than those who don't. This would help to keep our Congress people responsive to us rather than to lobbyists, corporations and government agencies we don't elect. But as things stand, the only way I can be represented by a Congress person who actually sees things the way I do or cares about the things I care about is move out of the tiny cattle pen with no reach that I'm already in to a different tiny cattle pen with no reach.
The system we have creates and maintains this insane, divisive, utterly unnuanced tribalism that is destroying us. And the parties we have want to keep it exactly as it is because they have learned how to game it to their exclusive advantage.
Why not just let each individual give up to X dollars to any one individual candidate. Of course we would first have to get rid of Citizens United to prohibit corporate contributions. There are ways of making this work. At some point, public funding would pay for X dollars per candidate and X hours of air time. There are strategies out there.
Tried google and speculation is a bearing went out on a wheel. Next to impossible to prevent. No amount of regulation, short of regularly removing every wheel on a train and disassembling to inspect the bearings, could have caught it, and even then... Pete's calls for increased safety do nothing to address the actual cause of the derailment. I don't blame him personally, but his indifference and scholarly approach demonstrates what a terrible politician he is, and the residents of East Palestine are letting America know what they think about all of it. Good for them for sticking up for themselves when no one else seems willing.
I have read some talk that there were past proposals to have emergency brakes on all rail cars so that when triggered, it would at least limit the cascading effect of a derailment and keep more of the cars structurally intact. I can't tell how much progress was ever made on that -- it appears the railroad lobbyists spent a bunch of money to make sure it didn't happen. Page 14 here is relevant: https://www.regulations.gov/comment/PHMSA-2012-0082-2329
What will the consumer bear? In the past there has been discussion about simply slowing these trains down, but that reduces efficiency/increases cost per mile. Eventually all excess cost is pushed to customers.
One good thing that can be said about government in this case is that the NTSB will do a good job of figuring out the cause. They're definitely a Federal Agency that does its job and does it well. Probably because they're not super political--pretty much everyone can agree that we should determine the cause of serious transportation accidents.
The best thing about the NTSB is that their mission is to find the cause of accidents to effectuate safer transport and pipelines in the future. My experience is that they're not perfect but they generally do a creditable job.
Until 2020 I would have said the same thing about the CDC. Their recommendations affect hundreds of millions of lives in this country, and when we become the template, billions of lives.
I'm sure they have some internal politics--every agency and public company has internal politics--but they are really good at determining the causes of plane crashes, train derailments, etc.
Barry -- That's true, but how many times have we never received any reliable evidence at all? I have not found a consistently credible source of information. Have you? As for the wreck, I "heard" from the TV that the bearing was showing fire well before East Palestine, that the central headquarters people were informed by their sensor system that that was happening, that those people instructed the engineers to keep going, and that virtually the same thing happened at another Ohio location a short time ago. We'll see whether all -- or any -- of that turns out to be true. But what is indisputable is that Trump deregulated the railroads, opening the door for this sort of thing.
What does "deregulation" mean? What specific policies were repealed, and how can anyone say they played a role here if we are not even sure what actually happened?
If the people operating the train knew there was a major problem and ignored it, it seems unlikely to me they were operating according to even whatever reduced safety standards may have been introduced by Trump.
It seems likely that Norfok Southern bears the primary responsibility here.
It's odd, I think, that the same people who would reflexively blame "corporations" for, well, everything, would here be defending them tacitly.
And it seems equally obvious that if this derailment had happened during the Trump Presidency YOU would be the first to be blaming the President for everything you could think of. Hell, you're blaming him here, even though he's been out of office for two years.
Somehow, you skipped over the portion of my comment that spread the blame around. I pointed to Trump because I was responding to the comment before mine that attempted to separate Trump from any blame. I don't see many innocent characters here, except the people of East Palestine. I know that there are "good" and "bad" corporations, but I believe that there are certain industries that have shown that they are not capable of handling the self-policing responsibilities that should accompany de-regulation.
If you are going to blame "deregulation" as a means of involving Trump, do you not need to be able to say specifically what was deregulated, and what role that specific change in policy played in the crash?
And what if it turns out that Norfok Southern donates nearly all its money to Democrats, as many large corporations do?
In 2018, the Trump administration repealed a 2015 regulation that required trains bearing “highly flammable” toxic chemicals have ECP (electronic pneumatic) braking systems, which slow a train down 70% faster than conventional braking systems. They claimed costs outweighed benefits. However, It’s not directly applicable to this incident though, because it wasn’t carrying chemicals deemed “highly flammable”! Yikes
The train didn't hit anything, nor did it brake. As far as I can tell, one of its wheels was on fire for several dozen miles and must have eventually fallen off. And since all the cars are connected, one failure leads to mass failure.
And do you have any reason to suppose costs do not outweigh benefits? They didn't get rid of brakes, and in the past 20 years I can't remember a derailment of this magnitude. It's easy for regulatory groups to tell industry they have to have the best of everything, but oftentimes the best is not needed, and asking people to in effect waste money has economic consequences. Obviously.
I know that pretty much everyone involved in the internet and media generally swings Democrat.
How they "swing" I don't know. Neither do you. Would it make sense playing both sides? Probably.
It does seem unlikely to me though that you missed the underlying point that Democrats are very certainly not in the business of protecting ordinary Americans from Big Business any more, if they ever were.
And you were correct to ignore the fact that you were making claims about Trump that are simply not supportable by the facts known to us.
I am not a Democrat and have no defense for them. And your characterization of the internet and media is simply a product of your bias. Believe me, the other side views the media as in your pocket. It's clear to me that both sides are in the business of placating and getting rich off of Big Business. But the statement about Trump's deregulation of the railroads is not a matter of speculation.
This is a thoughtful fair response, and opened my eyes, so thank you. However, why did Biden go to Ukraine at all??! Doesn’t it only serve to escalate the war? I’m hearing through friends in gov that things are not good at all right now.
Exactly Cissy it’s called a number of things 1. electioneering, 2. Photoshoot and 3. Money laundering. It could be all 3, these dogs are making a fortune of money or it could be 1 of the 3, especially the 1st if they remain in power come 2025 they will continue on the same path making billions of $$$. This is an exceptionally greedy bunch of humans. We best all watch out and watch our backs the deep state is relentless.
Terrence, you're usually observant but really miss the point here. It isn't that Biden is in Ukraine but that his entire attention is focused there with no attention paid by his Clown Car Administration to a disaster in his own country. And the fact that the victims of the disaster in East Palestine are almost all white working class Americans only highlights why the Biden Cabal and its effete coastal and academic acolytes are reviled when the wave their little Ukrainian flags and shower Zelensky with untold amounts of borrowed cash. Add in the fact that Biden has incessantly attacked white, working class Americans as domestic terrorists and his predecessor maligned them as rubes who cling to guns and religion (along with the harridan who called them a "basket of deplorables) and you get a pretty good picture of how this cabal of jackals views their fellow Americans. Oh, we're fine to pay taxes to support their illegal human imports and indolent charges and to fight their wars, but actually provide help in a disaster? NFW! Hopefully this will be a wake up call for all working Americans that the leftist abomination that the Democrat Party has become is the implacable enemy of patriotic, working Americans, their children and their grandchildren. That's why people link Ukraine and East Palestine. Because the differences just could not be more stark or the reasons for the disparate treatment and attention more evident.
In Canada thousands of truckers converged on Ottawa and not a single member of the federal government met with them to ask why they were there, our Prime Minister hid in an undisclosed location hurling insults at the protestors, and the main stream media wrote lots of stories but forgot to send reporters to actually interview a protestor or two.
Bruce, I am as astute as ever. Respectfully, you miss the point that the world’s leading superpower can easily continue to offer limited non-combat military support to Ukraine and at the same time clean up the contamination from a railroad mishap. I don’t think your claim of racism is warranted. It’s a claim too easily made in America. By both tribes.
The linkage is not warranted. Americans spend more money on lotteries than has been spent assisting Ukraine defend against Russian imperialism. Most of America’s military spending since 1945 has been incurred to stop the spread of communism. The savings which will occur after Ukraine defeats Russia will be Yuge.
Of course we CAN do both: problem is that Biden and his cabal of nitwits cared F all about the Trump voters in East Palestine. I made no claim of racism. I made a claim of studied indifference toward the white working class that has built America, fought its wars and supported its moral compass. The Democrat coastal elites make no secret of despising those who cling to guns and religion. Only thing is, Biden has now doubled down, declaring us to be domestic terrorists and weaponizing his "Justice" Department to muzzle speech and dissent. Edging ever closer to a casus belli.
We can debate the money spent to defeat communism. Much was wasted on a detente until Reagan decided the end the charade. And take down the whole rotten edifice. Amusing that Biden's cabal is aping the Soviet Union in its last days: with lying media, corrupt hangers on and sclerotic leaders. With the same disgust for them by citizens.
As far as Ukraine beating Russia, don't be so sure. Both sides are taking heavy casualties and much of Ukraine is in ruins. If that's what victory looks like, I'd sure hate to contemplate defeat. Do I want Russia to lose? Yes I do. But I'd prefer a negotiated end to this madness and killing. And despite the proclamations of our liberal warrior class (a jibe), it is by no means clear that Russia is losing or will ultimately lose. And if we face the choice of having to insert our own combat forces to forestall that, heaven help us.
And if backed into much more of a corner will Russia deploy nukes? Is Putin an if-I-can't-have-her-nobody-can kind of guy? I know JB is an I'm-effing-her-what-are-you-going-to-do-about-it
You've described the crux of it. Biden didn't need to go there. But he did need to tell his cabinet minister, "Get your ass over there - it's your job" because evidentally he doesn't understand that or care. For appearances sake, even if there isn't much of anything they can do at this point. Because, the optics of what they are doing is sending the message that the don't care about areas that don't vote for their tribe. In other words, they don't represent the citizens of America, they only represent Democrats.
Trump understands this and is exploiting the hell out of it. Bringing in bottled water was very inexpensive campaigning - and probably makes no difference. Based on what I've read about the incident, it doesn't surprise me that well water is unaffected. Typically this comes from aquifers deep underground. The air and surface water issues are obviously a concern.
Yeah, that would be almost as bad as if there were a pandemic and someone "sliow walked" response, supplies, etc becausr it was only hitting the highly populated Blue States/cities.
No. Harping about hypocrisy isn't my thing. We're all hypocrites at times. Anyway you wrote it as a hypothetical. Hard not to agree with a hypothetical.
It isn't your thing. How convenient. I think the actuality is that you had no problem at all with Trump's Covid tribalism, which was a much bigger deal....but you've suddenly had a partisan come-apart re: "tribalism" for one town.
And what would happen if Democrats were to propose stricter safety regulations for railroads? Republicans would be on TV and social media crying about the government "wanting to control everything" and about "overregulation" and about how we need to trust companies to regulate themselves. They're damned if they do and damned if they don't.
Well, actually Mayor Pete is calling for more regulations and I can't find a single story about Republicans doing anything like what you claim.
Here's the thing, if the cause was bad wheel bearing then this disaster was probably not preventable. Nothing Mayor Pete has called for would have changed it. What matters is the response, and if the locals feel like no one is helping them then it's probably because no one is helping them.
The compassionate unicorn and butterfly party proves they care more about the welfare of everybody except the legal citizens of the US. They care more about the welfare of the Ukraine and the welfare of undocumented Democrats than they do about us.
I'm still pissed off and will be for a long time about how that moron, the ever senile Joe shut the country down and made us wear masks in order to fight covid yet not only let in but promoted the flood and the release of 1.05 million of unvaccinated (Not just unvaccinated against covid but not vaccinated at all against other diseases.) undocumented Democrats into the country. He not only did that but dispersed them throughout the country. That could be considered gem warfare.
I will bet you money, he didn't ship any of them to Delaware.
If this happened in a black neighborhood you would be wearing a pimp hat with a feather in it and platform shoes and you would be whoring out the locals.
Why would I need to be wearing pimp clothes? Is that something people in the black neighborhood would respond to? Couldn't I just wear regular human clothes?
Pimping them out for what? Get them all uppitty and agitated about not having clean drinking water?
But I'll tell you what. I'll care just as much about this situation as you did about Flint, MI and all the other places not populated by people get to know the granular details of Mexican social, political and cultural dynamics by golfing in Cabo San Lucas. Deal?
The nitwits who ran the water system in Flint did it to themselves, switching a water source in violation of all normal water system water quality protocols in order to save money. Katrina was intentionally brewed up off the coast of Africa in order to devastate the black community in New Orleans. Didn't you know that? You're only defending the Dame of Chappaqua because she can sound so convincingly "black." Lol.
1. the elected officials of Flint changed water sources to save money which required an analysis of what the new water source would do to the old pipe, including the lead ones. That's basic water system health and safety protocols. But they ignored them. Bingo - lead contamination. Dummies.
2. I was being sarcastic. Sarcasm is beyond your meager abilities. Not my fault. Clearly, humans cannot (yet) orchestrate hurricanes, let alone target them at specific communities.
3. How exactly does one sound "black?" Ask Hillary. She did it. Perhaps we should term her the Ebonic Plague?
Yes, the Flint officials were Democrats. And then they cried "racism" when their dumb decisions came back and bit them in the ass. Truly and comically predictable. They didn't bother to analyze the effect of the new water source because they were lazy, incompetent scum sucking Democrats. Just like Kevin said.
As the article correctly notes: Flint’s water problems can be traced back to 2014, when city and state officials switched the city’s water supply from the Detroit water system to the contaminated Flint River in an effort to cut costs, CNN previously reported. That decision exposed residents to extremely high levels of lead and prompted more than a dozen lawsuits against those involved.
I don't think that his is a viable candidacy in 2024. However, I think NE would be an excellent choice for VP by President Trump, should be be the.nominee. Vic would be the antidote for age concerns for Trump. Should he unfortunately be incapacitated, Vic's presence could assure that his policies are continued. Not like that fake Christian, establishment worm, Pence, or any other currently. announced or anticipated candidate for the nomination.
And Fetterman became the senator for Pennsylvania after having suffered a bad stroke, and now he has checked himself into a hospital for clinical depression - one can’t make this crap up!
One look in the mirror explains the depression. But that term is just an excuse for trauma induced by his inability to do his new job. He is a basket case, and Democrats hid his problems until he won the primary. Then Democrats kept him from displaying his incompetence in debates until he screwed that up. The machine got him elected just for his senate vote. Democrats don't care a whit about people like Fetterman.
Considering he just had a stroke, a pacemaker and an implantable defibrillator placed (all in May) I find depression to be highly suspicious. Not to mention being admitted to the hospital earlier this month for "feeling lightheaded". His reported diagnoses (afib and stroke) don't match his treatment.
Notice you conveniently misspelled holocaust for plausible deniability.
"It's cute that a Chauvin/McMichael's fan club member pretends to be upset about Fetterman." Evidence? And anyway, Joe let the cat out of the bag when he told the wife she'd be a "great lady in the Senate." Democrats truly believe they can play the game any way they want to.
Who cares what Biden said to the wife? You think I believe someone who claims black people are stealing elections is legitimately concerned about Fetterman?
CP, you keep making this strawman assertion that KD gives a shit about Fetterman. He has replied to you several times that he does not. Why do you insist on arguing against points that are not being made? Is your reading comprehension so poor, or are you simply unwilling to engage? I don't care to know the answer; it's just amusing that you only seem to work against fictional arguments of your own creation.
No. Not a strawman at all. You need to look up that term. He has repeatedly railed against Fetterman. Good news: He finally admitted that he doesn't actually care. He was just pretending to.
Which is what I said was the case from Day 1. He has zero credibility. All an act. So, not fictional at all.
No way a Chauvin/McMichaels fan club member who refers to Arberry's murder as a "tragedy for everyone involved" could legitimately be outraged/upset re: Fetterman.
KevinDurant is a pathological liar, who believes black people are stealing elections and Planned Parenthood offices are doing castrations.
If DeWine drank one glass of tainted water, that is symbolic. In toxicology, “the dose makes the poison”. Let’s see him drink nothing but local well water from now on.
No actually the soul it doesn’t do a good job of filtering many organic contaminants…that’s why RCRA, Superfund cleanup occurred. After doing studies while working at US EPA of pesticides in groundwater and years of overseeing groundwater sampling in industrial & marine port cleanups & finding concentrations of nearly every of the 60-90 chemicals for which we tested…I gotta say you are dead wrong. There are thousands of pages is such data in the EPA archives. The people in this town deserve a lot better.
Should say the soil though the accidental typo of soul as in the souls of the matter is the issue here. For no good reason these people are being ignored.
I know - they are being egregiously ignored. I was reacting to some of the specific over reacting. I don't think vinyl chlorides are among the many chemicals that can persist in the ground very long, and even if they are, it would take much longer for them to seep down to the aquifers that their drinking water comes from, if indeed it even is extracted locally. Their immediate problems aren't so easy to deal with as bringing in bottled water when their tap water is still okay. It's grandstanding. It was a trivial nitpick and I shouldn't have made it because it sounded like I was minimizing the seriousness of the event which was not my intention.
Yes the main point is how lightly it appears this is being treated. You may be right-I don’t know the specifics of vinyl chloride, but as you probably know, contaminant breakdown is complex; intermediate compounds can be more or less toxic. And some chemicals can be tasted and smelled at minute concentrations. It’s not clear if sampling data has been made public and scrutinized. Perhaps media reporting has been sketchy and more data has been analyzed than inferred.
But given citizen reports of fish dying etc it sounds like the studies done have been insultingly light weight.
In contrast, in assessing potential health risk, for political reasons, in one study EPA required we assume each person ate pounds of fish livers (not whole fish, the liver!) every day…insane overkill, but it highlights how dismissive the feds are being in this situation.
If I lived there I'd be getting a pool of neighbors ro pay for running regular tap water samples into one of the many independant labs. It's not very expensive. I wouldnt trust any official of any party at this point.
Yes, we all need to thank Bari. I became interested in her while watching Real Time and have followed her since then. Truly a bright light in the darkness of current journalism.
How ungrateful are these people in East Palestine! Dont they know that Joe Biden is busy giving blank check to Ukraine, who elected him to represent their interests. Ungrateful Americans should know their place, that is to pay taxes and shut up.
Not without sarcasm, if anyone had any illusions, now little our politicians care about Americans, hopefully this illusion has been shattered last week. Entire administrations has been avoiding Ohio like it is infected with plague. Mayor Pete is nowhere to be seen. Jesus, did we ever hand such incompetent person in government?!? Kamala is missing in action last 2 years, when I thing, better to keep it that way, she is probably only person who is even more incapable than Mayor Pete.
But cherry on the cake was Joe Biden, to have audacity to go for Photoshoot to Ukraine, while we have disaster at home and people in need. He is American President. At this point, our congress will help everyone but not people at home.
Sometimes I think that we live under occupation, there is no other way in explaining, how little our politicians care for problems at home.
It gets worse. The latest news is that we're handing over policy power to the WHO so they have total control over our country if (when) they declare pandemic again. We're watching our representatives hand our sovereignty and our democracy away to corrupt, unelected international organizations while they hardly even pay lip service to disasters at home. While Joe Biden declares that "democracy stands" because he's escalating the war in Ukraine.
That's the same WHO, btw, that said closing borders to the virus was racism.
This should be the biggest news in the country. It's their backdoor to global government whether we want it or not.
Victor Orban has his issues, but at least he knows he's the President of Hungary and his job is to protect and defend and promote the interests of Hungarians.
President Biden seems to think he's President of the world. And he doesn't appear to even like most of his deplorable fellow Americans, let alone want to defend their interests.
I think he just likes to cut a figure, wherever the opportunity arises. He often has a totally genuine looking smile when capering about making an ass of himself. Very unique. Clownish.
EPA and DOT arrived on site within hours, and are still there. The White House offered federal funding nearly immediately. Evacuation orders occurred. Homes and soils were and continue to be tested. In a situation like this, with potential disastrous consequences and a plethora of details to be addressed...no one will be satisfied. Is everyone satisfied, no. Did some things go wrong? Yes. Are people right to be upset? Yes. But this article and many comments here make it sound like no help was offered and the various level of governments have walked away. That is crazy. This simply further politicizes a terrible situation. These sorts of articles ought to outline what happened, EVERYTHING that has happened in response, and WHAT still needs addressed. Interviewing a few obviously, and rightly so, traumatized citizens without also including what is happening on the ground, is bait for those who want to further politicize and deepen the divides between us. One obvious failure of this sort of coverage is lack of mention of the lack of action in Congress for regulation (dirty word) and oversight (costs money...taxes) of these companies, which is way toooo leftist for many commenters here to stomach. Why not put Vance on the spot and ask him what his plans are to make the 1000s of derailments a year a thing of the past? Ask Trump why he lifted regs specific to rail safety during his tenure? And yes....absolutely press democratic legislators as well for comments and answers to these questions! This country’s infrastructure has been deteriorating for years while corporations using it continue to profit.
Thank you. i was going to post a similar comment but you covered it. "The Free Press" is mostly still just a commentary site, not "hard journalism". Running a piece like this that slants the viewpoint from the right and offers just about zero actual facts about the situation but just repeats claims about how the Biden Administration is "neglecting" East Palestine is not "journalism", it's commentary, and it's hard to see what the purpose of the piece is other than to inflame the partisan slant of the commentariat here.
I'm glad to see pushback against this narrative in some of the comments however. I think it's fair to criticize Pete B. for not being on site sooner as a symbolic visit, but being honest, that is just PR. Being "on site" doesn't mean there's no agency presence or coordination happening. And weighing Biden's trip to Ukraine on the anniversary of the war there, and the symbolism of NATO, as "proof" that Biden doesn't care about this town in a Red State is a pretty cheap shot. But if this site wants to be viewed as "journalism", they should try doing more actual "journalism" (aka 'factual reporting') versus "narrative commentary".
Oh so Bari Weiss is now just a right wing nut case? What's 'hard journalism" in your book? The laughably biased and mostly wrong NY Times? Bezos's establishment mouthpiece? Come on, do tell. And btw, we don't need the senile imbecile to "prove" he despises places such as East Palestine. He's told us so. And that white working class people in "flyover" country are nothing but domestic terrorists who want to torture and degrade black people. As much as I despise him, Biden is only a puppet, long into his decline. His supporters and apologists are much, much worse.
Sure they showed up. And then proceeded to engage in some of the most questionable, boneheaded and contradictory acts imaginable. So excuse me if I view you as a DNC apologist. This was a significant industrial catastrophe. I find it funny to recall the angst and wailing that arose over Bhopal but the sniggering indifference that affects a working class white community in "flyover country."
Who is sniggering?
Every coastal elite in corporate media looks down on and ridicules working Americans who live in the Heartland. Did you miss that?
Good comment. Don't totally agree with your proposed solution, but I agree with your observations. I had the feeling while reading the article that it was one-sided - designed to stir me up without any balance for the kinds of things that are likely going on but not getting much notice. People want instant results like babies. It's a major accident and takes time to deal with it. The high profile agencies acted stupidly in terms of their appearance of inactivity and indifference. But mostly they just get in the way anyway. Remember all those stupid photo op visits to Katrina and even more recently Ft Myers? So they're damned if they don't and damned if they do. In the long run it's the lower level activities that count. That's what they should be reporting on. Maybe those are inadequate, but I didn't get the feeling from this article that they knew what was happening other than listening to MSM news and repeating it.
I agree with most of your comments. On the high-profile agencies….the DOT and EPA and FEMA are such agencies, I you’d agree. And on the ground stuff certainly gets things done. But these agencies are often highly involved on the ground, scientists and techs, in both determination of cause itself, and the ensuing cleanup. Any importantly, they fund these activities with federal dollars. Locals and States would rarely have needed expertise or funding. I think I get what you’re saying though, which is why all the hysteria over high-profile people (vs agencies) like Buttigieg and for sure Biden, not being there immediately bugs me. At their level it shows high level concern, which means a lot to people who are suffering. On the other hand…it is really a gesture that doesn’t mean much to the actual fix….those agency people working in the field. This not always true, but most often I’d think. I’m waiting to hear more before I criticize too loudly, the response by agencies.
Yeah we gotta give the agencies credit for being science but we also have to wait for them to do the science. Because it’s science and they have to press special buttons.
At no point should we question federal expertise. They are the science experts.
Hey…if you got an idea of how to get railroad corporations to play it straight…have at it Kevin! Heck! If you want to pitch in and run your municipal sewer district, go ahead. If you want to figure out how to remove the tumor from your neighbor’s stomach, more power to you. Want that gas and oil to keep your wheels turning, you don’t need help. if you want to develop a medicine for your dad’s heart troubles, why not? Who needs an expert? Who needs government ? Who needs science? This whole anti-science/education/ expert crap is absurd. No one suggested we never question expertise. In reality if these are things that interest you….go ahead. Study organic and inorganic chemistry, physics, calculus, engineering, hydrology, toxicology…stuff like that for 6 to 8 years and you could do any of the above, even help figure out how clean up East Palestine for the folks suffering there.
"No one suggested we never question expertise."
Really? How about the demented dwarf who brayed "oy represent soy-yence" and his Greek Chorus of moronic acolytes? No he doesn't represent science. Science involves constant questions. The science is never settled. A real scientist - not a fraud like Fauci - observed "We have found it of paramount importance that in order to progress we must recognize the ignorance and leave room for doubt. Scientific knowledge is a body of statements of varying degrees of certainty — some most unsure, some nearly sure, none absolutely certain.” Richard Feynman.
Sorry. I was referring to my statement only.
Of course. You’re the victim, persecuted by my words. You sound brainwashed and fed by your chosen echo chamber, unable to respond rationally or without insults to those who might disagree with you. Again, Congress (I think I mentioned both sides of isle) has the power to both fix this and prevent or reduce future tragedies in the future: pass and fund infrastructure bills and fund regulating agencies to enforce safety measures. That’s the only way capitalism can work. Every one of us needs to see the fundamental problem and vote to fix it.
Exactly how do you regulate wheel bearings??? Btw, if your "vote to fix it" doesn't work, then what? Seems like one Party had all the power for the past 2 years and did squat with it. Republicans had no power to oppose Mayor Pete's calls for increased railroad safety regulation before the vote on the "Infrastructure" bill. Oh wait, he didn't make any.
In fact, you can regulate brakes on trains. In 2018, the DOT repealed a train safety rule established in 2015 that required installing electronically controlled pneumatic (ECP) brakes on trains that carried highly flammable hazardous materials. These brakes safely stop trains much much faster than regular brakes. I do vote to fix things, and was happy Congress passed the Infrastructure bill during 2021. I would call that “squat” as you say. Whether or how it addresses rail lines I don’t know, but I do know it funds upgrades to airport safety systems and bridges, thank god. I won’t go into the partisan battles fought to pass it, but in the end it was passed with only 32 GOP supporters. I don’t know what was fought over, included, or thrown out. All that said, the brake legislation was repealed in 2018 by the Trump administration because costs were touted to outweigh benefits. I will add that this particular train in Ohio was not carrying “highly flammable hazardous materials”, by definition, 😳, so wouldn’t have been required to have ECP brakes. Well…That’s one hugely glaring problem I think we could agree on!! So no, this train would not have been covered by that regulation anyhow, and more importantly we now know trains carrying even more dangerous flammables aren’t required to have these ECO brakes now either. Think about it. That’s the problem. The last decades have been increasingly anti fed regulation. We will see how the clean up goes as time goes by…it takes time to sort out these environmental disasters.
"So no, this train would not have been covered by that regulation anyhow, and more importantly we now know trains carrying even more dangerous flammables aren’t required to have these ECO brakes now either. "
In other words , a patent red herring and lying DNC talking point You, to your credit, have the honesty to concede that. The DNC flacks do not.
I said wheel bearings, not breaks. Trains could also just go slower, but whatever your preferred solution that is added cost that consumers will be made to bear.
"The last decades have been increasingly anti fed regulation." Says who? According to the Federal Register, 3000-4000 new rules and regulations are implemented every year.
Well over 2000 chemicals a year are introduced for use in this country, and the EPA is charged with, along with other duties, reviewing not only these but a 60000 chemical back log. This is just chemical safety and use. This is a huge country with a lot of issues, industry, transportation, airlines, education, agriculture…an so on. Many of these new rules and regulations deal with modifying and tweaking and yes, weakening past regs. Let’s watch what the new House works on.
We just need more government. More money and more experts. The government is trying so hard but we starve them. They just need resources!!!!
Why is it up to the House to do anything with Federal regulations? The EPA is under the Executive Branch. If Joe Biden had wanted to significantly expand the EPA in the past 2 years he could have easily done it just like he did with the IRS. Seems like you keep wanting to steer this toward some murky political point.
The person you are referring to is not fed by the echo chamber, Ann - he feeds it. His last sentence above in his response to your previous post is his preferred comeback to anyone who is but a molecule left of his position. And his modus operandi of rabid riposte gives cover for other commenters to act the same..
Oh well.
Sure Kevin can be a bit rough at times. But his "rabid ripostes" (not bad) do serve to lay bare and ridicule the hypocrisy and lies of the left. Which makes him a favorite here.
I'm glad you liked that. I went into my thesaurus for that one..
Of course there's hypocrisy on the left, I try to fight it everyday - and of course Fox has that problem too.
The problem I have is that I know that Kevin is very smart and articulate as hell, if he wants to be. But that is not what he wants to project here. He chooses to use his skills (considerable) to attack and ridicule. That not only stifles meaningful debate to whom he's addressing, he's stifling himself, imo..
Thank you Ann. Well said.
That illusion was shattered when they mandated an experimental gene therapy on the population for profit and Lord knows why else. Our current leaders and the global elite that control them do not care about any human life but their own. We are being lead by crooks and demons. Most can't see it and those that do fear speaking it or they will get canceled. Anyone still under the illusion that our leaders care about us, well, they are living in a fantasy world.
**Flint, MI has entered the chat**
Maybe they can give Palestine some advice on how to get Federal attention.
Flint, MI was and is an ongoing tragedy, caused by incompetent progressive government.
Uh. No. Might want to look into that.
**exploiting Blacks to push your psychotic agenda has entered the chat**
It's cute that a Chauvin/McMichaels fan member pretends to be concerned about that.
John Fetterman saw a black man jogging and John Fetterman, a Democrat, grabbed his shotgun to chase said black man down the street.
He saw the black skin. He grabbed the shotgun. He chased him down.
It's cute that a Chauvin/McMicharls fanboy who can't even get the Emmett Till story right pretends to be upset about Fetterman.
I am not pretending to be upset about Fetterman. I’m not upset about it at all.
Fetterman is an obese white skinhead who chased a black man down the street with his shotgun. You support him.
This is not about being upset. This is about what you support.
You support blacks being chased down the street by obese skinheads with shotguns.
"I'm not pretending to be upset Fetterman. I'm not upset about it at all." - KevinDurant, 2023.
Bingo! Good for you. Finally came clean. Baby steps, I guess.
It's cute a Chauvin/McMichale's fanboy pretends to be concerned about Fetterman.
If anyone is an expert on skinheads, I have no doubt it would be you.
Talk about somebody who needs "some new material."
Talk about a large variety of things. Only one topic, though, seems to generate as much anger and rage around here.
See...I was talking to Lynne in refence to AI.....but YOU brought it right back to something else, didn't you?
It's a public forum, CP. Get over yourself.
It's so cute you pretend to be upset about this. What about the black poll workers you claimed were stealing elections?
Geez Compost - talk about a one-trick pony. I see raaaaaciissssssmmmm everywhere….
Yes. It is everywhere. As long as there are humans. Good job, John.
AI trying to learn. Not very well.
Need some new material, Lynne. What are you going to talk about next - bad airline food?
Nope. I like this one.
Sorry. I didn't bring up Fetterman, exploiting black people, etc. KevinDurant did.
Reading is fundamental, John Elway.
The only reason you would burn this, set this fire and attract all of this attention, is if it’s an absolute catastrophe when this eventually leeches into the groundwater.
That is the only reason you would burn it.
Not exactly. The vinyl chloride can spontantously polymerize releasing a very significant amount of heat and produce numerous chlorinated aromatics, which are carcinogens and other chlorinated materials that are poisonous, not to mention hydrochloric acid. Burning it is terrible, but likely less dangerous than allowing it to react on its own. Either way is a catastrophe.
Are you saying that by burning it those carcinogens were not created?
Burning it oxidizes the materials, so fewer noxious chemicals are produced., but certainly not zero. An uncontrolled polymerization could cause an explosion that would send out a lot of stuff over a much wider area. A controlled burn is likely one accepted method of destroying vinyl chloride.
I just learned that butyl acrylate and ethylhexyl acrylate were also on that train. These are also chemicals that polymerize and release heat, not to mention their extreme irritation to skin and eyes. Carcinogens as well.
A real witches' brew of crap.
Raziel
It’s not an either/or. Biden supporting Ukraine’s defense against Russian imperialism has no impact whatsoever on whether the government in Ohio is responding appropriately to the train derailment in this mispronounced Ohio town.
If DeWine did drink tap water, how legitimate is the concern over water quality? I think you live under the occupation of a continuing civil war. The tribalism is remarkable.
The water is unsafe because the President is in Europe when he should be in America reassuring the children who are members of the other tribe.
President Trump, who was in fact a very good POTUS was relentlessly attacked throughout his Presidency because he is not a member of the tribe which dishonestly and stupidly controls the narrative.
After observing those attacks since 2016 I now see members of the Republican tribe, including those who work in the media, engaging in the same kind of dishonest, clueless and hysterical attacks on the leader of the Democrat tribe.
Yes Biden has been a disaster, but not everything he has done has been wrong.
I appreciate your thoughtful reply!
Hey. Mayor Pete can’t be bothered on his walk to answer a simple question. But at least he got a picture of the reporter.
It is hard to appreciate anything he has done as right, when so much wrong overpowers it. Pete Buttigieg as already noted, has an elitist attitude and is hands off at 30,000 feet. Pete speaks well but it incompetent. Kamala speaks poorly and is laughably incompetent. We have got to get rid of this crew.
The blame for this one is non-partisan: everyone gets some blame. As for your defense of Trump, remember that his deregulation of the railroads started this ball rolling. Biden and company deserve the criticism they are getting, but it burns me a bit to see Trump making political hay out of the consequences of his favoritism toward corrupt corporations.
Tort law has led to greater protection than government regulations by far. Sue the crap out of those responsible if it is due to some kind of negligence. And if they want to make one change to improve safety further it would be to be able to hold corporate officers personally liable for negligence. In my opinion that would make a world of difference. It would work better than any amount of government regulations which often just provide butt-cover when things fail; they say we followed the regulations and show where these were (inevitably) inadequate.
Jeff -- The problem is that tort litigation is enormously expensive, far too expensive for the average American. There is class action, but usually only the lawyers make out well.
Let alone - it's after the fact. Companies regularly roll the dice on settling litigation over the cost of prevention/regulation.
If you have a strong case it's not that expensive at all - and usually contingency based. PI lawyers work that way all the time. I agree - class action lawsuits are a waste of time for everyone but the lawyers (both sides) and drive costs up for everyone else.
Yes, but having done a couple myself, I know that the cost of a lengthy class action to the plaintiffs is more than just financial.
Oh, I agree. Often the biggest cost is the emotional turmoil and stress from uncertainties that drag on seemingly forever. The stress involved is unimaginable to those who haven't been through it.
Do we even know what caused the crash? I haven't seen anything. The only claim I've seen made is that wheel failed somehow.
It's astonishing how quickly people jump to "circle the wagons and fight to the last bullet" conclusions without the least bit of EVIDENCE.
The problem with this view is that government, media, and corporations have made it impossible to trust the government, media, or corporations. It may be objectively true that a wheel failed and that this derailment would not have been preventable. But how will we ever know? None of these organizations -- not the government, not the media, not the corporate railroad -- has any credibility left in the bank. Americans have seen truth too many times made a casualty to personal and corporate profiteering and to furthering political ambitions.
For example, the CDC, DEA, and politicians have taken adequate pain control away from innocent, legitimate pain patients in the name of repairing an opioid epidemic that has only skyrocketed in response to their unjustified prohibition. The experts who wrote the guidelines for the CDC calling for stripping down opioid prescriptions, EVEN FOR PEOPLE WHO LEGITIMATELY NEED THEM, turn out to have had all sorts of financial conflicts, including being positioned to make tons of money from anti-opioid activism. The result? States saw a huge opportunity to make money in lawsuits against drug manufacturers. But ordinary people are being given Tylenol now immediately following painful surgeries like knee replacements and bypasses. Cancer patients are not even getting adequate pain control anymore. Predictable, preventable suffering is widespread and ongoing. Ordinary, non-junkies are literally dying from untreated pain now -- from strokes, from heart attacks, from suicide, and from overdosing on the fentanyl-laced street drugs some turn to in desperation. Does anyone believe DEA members, CDC bigwigs, or our corrupted leaders can't get actual pain control when they or their loved ones need it? Of course not. Being punished simply for being in pain is for ordinary Americans with no voice and no connections.
In another example, back in 2015, the captured FAA and airlines imposed new, highly concentrated airplane routes on cities and neighborhoods around the country. These new routes were designed to save the airlines massive amounts of money in fuel costs by starting descents much further from the airport and to decrease spacing between landing planes so as to increase the number of flights that could be supported by the system. The result for some people on the ground was that airplane noise was massively increased in neighborhoods -- and not neighborhoods where people had knowingly bought homes near an airport, but neighborhoods an hour to an hour and a half away from airports. Where I live, about an hour and a half away from SFO in a once-peaceful mountain community we specifically moved to because of the quiet, we went from hearing planes four or five times a week to 300 planes a day. Sometimes, the noise from one plane is still audible when the next one starts. But the airlines, which lobbied the FAA hard for this change and which have profited from it, cannot be sued because they're only "flying where the FAA tells them to fly." And the FAA can't be sued because everything it does is for "safety" (you know, except when it comes to forcing airlines to provide leg space adequate to allow for fast deplaning in an emergency). The airlines profit enormously, and none of that profit is shared with the people who bear the brunt of the real cost. And FAA executives continue regularly to retire from their government jobs to walk into the waiting, very cushy, $400K-and-up jobs at the airlines they've "regulated."
And on and on and on and on.
So, if some government agency announced tomorrow that yes, indeed, it really WAS just a wheel bearing that caused this tragic train derailment, nothing anyone could have done, really, a tragedy but not a preventable tragedy, no need to blame the government or the corporation in this instance -- my immediate response would be cynical, whole-body skepticism. And that's not because I'm a conspiracy theorist: It's because I have learned from repeated experience that I cannot trust the government when it says anything -- even something that might be objectively true -- that is obviously in its own interest.
Trust is gone. I don't know how we'll ever get it back.
When will we, right, left, independent, INSIST on serious and far reaching measures to reduce, minimize the influence of money in politics?
I don't know how we can, short of a country-wide, consolidated movement to entirely (or majority) replace the existing-party chokehold on representative government all at once. The system we have has efficiently separated us all into small, powerless silos where we have no power and no voice.
The visual image I have of this is of herds of cattle being broken up and driven into separated pens. We bleat and run around in the limited space we have, banging into each other. We aren't allowed out of our pens, just driven in chutes from one to the next, and we can make no headway and have no effect whatsoever on the cowboys sitting on the rails of the pens looking down on us in amusement.
Take my FAA example above ... as a "non-constituent," I'm not even allowed to send an email to the congresspeople who have actual power relating to the country's transportation regulations -- because even though I'm deeply and personally impacted by the laws they write, I don't live in their district. Gatekeepers refuse email access and strip out "geographically inappropriate" snail mail. I'm only allowed to communicate with the representative of my own very limited district/region (and, of course, not even really with her -- only with her underpaid assistants and computer algorithms that scan our letters for keywords and send pre-scripted responses that require no actual engagement, time, or even awareness from the person who supposedly represents us).
I think we'd have much more actually representative government if all of us could choose the person in Congress who represents us. If a Congress person from Florida represents my interests and my political views more closely than my own Congress person in California, I should be able to choose to be a constituent of the Congress person in Florida even though I live in California. The representatives with the most constituents should have more power than those who don't. This would help to keep our Congress people responsive to us rather than to lobbyists, corporations and government agencies we don't elect. But as things stand, the only way I can be represented by a Congress person who actually sees things the way I do or cares about the things I care about is move out of the tiny cattle pen with no reach that I'm already in to a different tiny cattle pen with no reach.
The system we have creates and maintains this insane, divisive, utterly unnuanced tribalism that is destroying us. And the parties we have want to keep it exactly as it is because they have learned how to game it to their exclusive advantage.
Why not just let each individual give up to X dollars to any one individual candidate. Of course we would first have to get rid of Citizens United to prohibit corporate contributions. There are ways of making this work. At some point, public funding would pay for X dollars per candidate and X hours of air time. There are strategies out there.
Tried google and speculation is a bearing went out on a wheel. Next to impossible to prevent. No amount of regulation, short of regularly removing every wheel on a train and disassembling to inspect the bearings, could have caught it, and even then... Pete's calls for increased safety do nothing to address the actual cause of the derailment. I don't blame him personally, but his indifference and scholarly approach demonstrates what a terrible politician he is, and the residents of East Palestine are letting America know what they think about all of it. Good for them for sticking up for themselves when no one else seems willing.
"scholarly" how about lazy?
Pete presents himself as the gay Obama - all style and no substance, but with a lot less style.
He's just another scum bag politician. All hat but no cattle.
I have read some talk that there were past proposals to have emergency brakes on all rail cars so that when triggered, it would at least limit the cascading effect of a derailment and keep more of the cars structurally intact. I can't tell how much progress was ever made on that -- it appears the railroad lobbyists spent a bunch of money to make sure it didn't happen. Page 14 here is relevant: https://www.regulations.gov/comment/PHMSA-2012-0082-2329
What will the consumer bear? In the past there has been discussion about simply slowing these trains down, but that reduces efficiency/increases cost per mile. Eventually all excess cost is pushed to customers.
One good thing that can be said about government in this case is that the NTSB will do a good job of figuring out the cause. They're definitely a Federal Agency that does its job and does it well. Probably because they're not super political--pretty much everyone can agree that we should determine the cause of serious transportation accidents.
The best thing about the NTSB is that their mission is to find the cause of accidents to effectuate safer transport and pipelines in the future. My experience is that they're not perfect but they generally do a creditable job.
Until 2020 I would have said the same thing about the CDC. Their recommendations affect hundreds of millions of lives in this country, and when we become the template, billions of lives.
I will hope that you are right, though.
Right, a federal agency that is "not political" is just a federal agency that is not political *yet.*
I'm sure they have some internal politics--every agency and public company has internal politics--but they are really good at determining the causes of plane crashes, train derailments, etc.
In general, it's my impression that most people who work for the government just want to earn their paycheck. Most.
Unlike….who?
You can't be serious. The FBI, for starters, was ripe with top-level Democrat partisans acting on their psychosis.
Scott -- I'm glad to hear it. I didn't know that NTSB had that reputation.
Barry -- That's true, but how many times have we never received any reliable evidence at all? I have not found a consistently credible source of information. Have you? As for the wreck, I "heard" from the TV that the bearing was showing fire well before East Palestine, that the central headquarters people were informed by their sensor system that that was happening, that those people instructed the engineers to keep going, and that virtually the same thing happened at another Ohio location a short time ago. We'll see whether all -- or any -- of that turns out to be true. But what is indisputable is that Trump deregulated the railroads, opening the door for this sort of thing.
What does "deregulation" mean? What specific policies were repealed, and how can anyone say they played a role here if we are not even sure what actually happened?
If the people operating the train knew there was a major problem and ignored it, it seems unlikely to me they were operating according to even whatever reduced safety standards may have been introduced by Trump.
It seems likely that Norfok Southern bears the primary responsibility here.
It's odd, I think, that the same people who would reflexively blame "corporations" for, well, everything, would here be defending them tacitly.
And it seems equally obvious that if this derailment had happened during the Trump Presidency YOU would be the first to be blaming the President for everything you could think of. Hell, you're blaming him here, even though he's been out of office for two years.
Somehow, you skipped over the portion of my comment that spread the blame around. I pointed to Trump because I was responding to the comment before mine that attempted to separate Trump from any blame. I don't see many innocent characters here, except the people of East Palestine. I know that there are "good" and "bad" corporations, but I believe that there are certain industries that have shown that they are not capable of handling the self-policing responsibilities that should accompany de-regulation.
If you are going to blame "deregulation" as a means of involving Trump, do you not need to be able to say specifically what was deregulated, and what role that specific change in policy played in the crash?
And what if it turns out that Norfok Southern donates nearly all its money to Democrats, as many large corporations do?
In 2018, the Trump administration repealed a 2015 regulation that required trains bearing “highly flammable” toxic chemicals have ECP (electronic pneumatic) braking systems, which slow a train down 70% faster than conventional braking systems. They claimed costs outweighed benefits. However, It’s not directly applicable to this incident though, because it wasn’t carrying chemicals deemed “highly flammable”! Yikes
The train didn't hit anything, nor did it brake. As far as I can tell, one of its wheels was on fire for several dozen miles and must have eventually fallen off. And since all the cars are connected, one failure leads to mass failure.
And do you have any reason to suppose costs do not outweigh benefits? They didn't get rid of brakes, and in the past 20 years I can't remember a derailment of this magnitude. It's easy for regulatory groups to tell industry they have to have the best of everything, but oftentimes the best is not needed, and asking people to in effect waste money has economic consequences. Obviously.
You know that corporations like Norfok generally swing both way.
I know that pretty much everyone involved in the internet and media generally swings Democrat.
How they "swing" I don't know. Neither do you. Would it make sense playing both sides? Probably.
It does seem unlikely to me though that you missed the underlying point that Democrats are very certainly not in the business of protecting ordinary Americans from Big Business any more, if they ever were.
And you were correct to ignore the fact that you were making claims about Trump that are simply not supportable by the facts known to us.
I am not a Democrat and have no defense for them. And your characterization of the internet and media is simply a product of your bias. Believe me, the other side views the media as in your pocket. It's clear to me that both sides are in the business of placating and getting rich off of Big Business. But the statement about Trump's deregulation of the railroads is not a matter of speculation.
This is a thoughtful fair response, and opened my eyes, so thank you. However, why did Biden go to Ukraine at all??! Doesn’t it only serve to escalate the war? I’m hearing through friends in gov that things are not good at all right now.
Exactly Cissy it’s called a number of things 1. electioneering, 2. Photoshoot and 3. Money laundering. It could be all 3, these dogs are making a fortune of money or it could be 1 of the 3, especially the 1st if they remain in power come 2025 they will continue on the same path making billions of $$$. This is an exceptionally greedy bunch of humans. We best all watch out and watch our backs the deep state is relentless.
The Biden crime family is good at using their high office for skimming money.
Why I call Biden's family a crime family. Watch the video:
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/deadline-for-hunter-james-biden-eric-schwerin-passes-to-provide-documents-to-house-oversight-committee/ar-AA17QTpn?ocid=msedgntp&cvid=10a7c32d15024647be0b97902844fbd8&ei=17
Even the despicable comprf can't palm this off.
He won't. He will just talk about Trump like he always does. Deflect deflect deflect.
I doubt he'll ever comment on this. He has a hard time with reality.
The obvious question is how Biden would be responding if this had happened in Illinois or New York. I think it would be quite different.
Biden has a hard time remembering what planet he's on and now I'm told he thinks his name is Brandon.
Terrence, you're usually observant but really miss the point here. It isn't that Biden is in Ukraine but that his entire attention is focused there with no attention paid by his Clown Car Administration to a disaster in his own country. And the fact that the victims of the disaster in East Palestine are almost all white working class Americans only highlights why the Biden Cabal and its effete coastal and academic acolytes are reviled when the wave their little Ukrainian flags and shower Zelensky with untold amounts of borrowed cash. Add in the fact that Biden has incessantly attacked white, working class Americans as domestic terrorists and his predecessor maligned them as rubes who cling to guns and religion (along with the harridan who called them a "basket of deplorables) and you get a pretty good picture of how this cabal of jackals views their fellow Americans. Oh, we're fine to pay taxes to support their illegal human imports and indolent charges and to fight their wars, but actually provide help in a disaster? NFW! Hopefully this will be a wake up call for all working Americans that the leftist abomination that the Democrat Party has become is the implacable enemy of patriotic, working Americans, their children and their grandchildren. That's why people link Ukraine and East Palestine. Because the differences just could not be more stark or the reasons for the disparate treatment and attention more evident.
In Canada thousands of truckers converged on Ottawa and not a single member of the federal government met with them to ask why they were there, our Prime Minister hid in an undisclosed location hurling insults at the protestors, and the main stream media wrote lots of stories but forgot to send reporters to actually interview a protestor or two.
I think Biden was taking notes.
The NYT sent Michelle Goldberg but the only person she seems to have interviewed was there "for the mushrooms". She was obviously nutpicking.
The NYT is populated with hard left numbskulls.
By predecessor, you mean Obama? Worse than Biden, which says a lot about both of them. Throw out this crew!
Bruce, I am as astute as ever. Respectfully, you miss the point that the world’s leading superpower can easily continue to offer limited non-combat military support to Ukraine and at the same time clean up the contamination from a railroad mishap. I don’t think your claim of racism is warranted. It’s a claim too easily made in America. By both tribes.
The linkage is not warranted. Americans spend more money on lotteries than has been spent assisting Ukraine defend against Russian imperialism. Most of America’s military spending since 1945 has been incurred to stop the spread of communism. The savings which will occur after Ukraine defeats Russia will be Yuge.
Of course we CAN do both: problem is that Biden and his cabal of nitwits cared F all about the Trump voters in East Palestine. I made no claim of racism. I made a claim of studied indifference toward the white working class that has built America, fought its wars and supported its moral compass. The Democrat coastal elites make no secret of despising those who cling to guns and religion. Only thing is, Biden has now doubled down, declaring us to be domestic terrorists and weaponizing his "Justice" Department to muzzle speech and dissent. Edging ever closer to a casus belli.
We can debate the money spent to defeat communism. Much was wasted on a detente until Reagan decided the end the charade. And take down the whole rotten edifice. Amusing that Biden's cabal is aping the Soviet Union in its last days: with lying media, corrupt hangers on and sclerotic leaders. With the same disgust for them by citizens.
As far as Ukraine beating Russia, don't be so sure. Both sides are taking heavy casualties and much of Ukraine is in ruins. If that's what victory looks like, I'd sure hate to contemplate defeat. Do I want Russia to lose? Yes I do. But I'd prefer a negotiated end to this madness and killing. And despite the proclamations of our liberal warrior class (a jibe), it is by no means clear that Russia is losing or will ultimately lose. And if we face the choice of having to insert our own combat forces to forestall that, heaven help us.
And if backed into much more of a corner will Russia deploy nukes? Is Putin an if-I-can't-have-her-nobody-can kind of guy? I know JB is an I'm-effing-her-what-are-you-going-to-do-about-it
kind of guy. Not good. Not good at all.
Well said.
Bam!
You've described the crux of it. Biden didn't need to go there. But he did need to tell his cabinet minister, "Get your ass over there - it's your job" because evidentally he doesn't understand that or care. For appearances sake, even if there isn't much of anything they can do at this point. Because, the optics of what they are doing is sending the message that the don't care about areas that don't vote for their tribe. In other words, they don't represent the citizens of America, they only represent Democrats.
Trump understands this and is exploiting the hell out of it. Bringing in bottled water was very inexpensive campaigning - and probably makes no difference. Based on what I've read about the incident, it doesn't surprise me that well water is unaffected. Typically this comes from aquifers deep underground. The air and surface water issues are obviously a concern.
Yeah, that would be almost as bad as if there were a pandemic and someone "sliow walked" response, supplies, etc becausr it was only hitting the highly populated Blue States/cities.
No, that would be the same thing.
I know, right? Did you opine on that?
No. Harping about hypocrisy isn't my thing. We're all hypocrites at times. Anyway you wrote it as a hypothetical. Hard not to agree with a hypothetical.
It isn't your thing. How convenient. I think the actuality is that you had no problem at all with Trump's Covid tribalism, which was a much bigger deal....but you've suddenly had a partisan come-apart re: "tribalism" for one town.
I think you are making huge assumptions about me, my voting habits, my relationship with Trump, and what my tribe might or might not be.
Interesting response.
And what would happen if Democrats were to propose stricter safety regulations for railroads? Republicans would be on TV and social media crying about the government "wanting to control everything" and about "overregulation" and about how we need to trust companies to regulate themselves. They're damned if they do and damned if they don't.
Well, actually Mayor Pete is calling for more regulations and I can't find a single story about Republicans doing anything like what you claim.
Here's the thing, if the cause was bad wheel bearing then this disaster was probably not preventable. Nothing Mayor Pete has called for would have changed it. What matters is the response, and if the locals feel like no one is helping them then it's probably because no one is helping them.
Once again Bruce you have nailed it.
The compassionate unicorn and butterfly party proves they care more about the welfare of everybody except the legal citizens of the US. They care more about the welfare of the Ukraine and the welfare of undocumented Democrats than they do about us.
I'm still pissed off and will be for a long time about how that moron, the ever senile Joe shut the country down and made us wear masks in order to fight covid yet not only let in but promoted the flood and the release of 1.05 million of unvaccinated (Not just unvaccinated against covid but not vaccinated at all against other diseases.) undocumented Democrats into the country. He not only did that but dispersed them throughout the country. That could be considered gem warfare.
I will bet you money, he didn't ship any of them to Delaware.
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/is-biden-getting-new-neighbors-legislation-proposed-to-send-illegal-immigrants-to-delaware
It's much harder to launder money through campaign donations domestically.
That's what Ukraine is for.
Just ask hunter
Don't miss the interview with Ed Dowd on Tucker Carlson Today on excess deaths re the vaccines. Riveting.
Not everything has been wrong. But this is.
1. According to the full, accurate quote, only some are in the basket of deplorables.
2. Flint, MI has something to say.
3. The train was INTENTIONALLY derailed because this communtity is all white working class. Discuss!
If this happened in a black neighborhood you would be wearing a pimp hat with a feather in it and platform shoes and you would be whoring out the locals.
Why would I need to be wearing pimp clothes? Is that something people in the black neighborhood would respond to? Couldn't I just wear regular human clothes?
Pimping them out for what? Get them all uppitty and agitated about not having clean drinking water?
But I'll tell you what. I'll care just as much about this situation as you did about Flint, MI and all the other places not populated by people get to know the granular details of Mexican social, political and cultural dynamics by golfing in Cabo San Lucas. Deal?
The nitwits who ran the water system in Flint did it to themselves, switching a water source in violation of all normal water system water quality protocols in order to save money. Katrina was intentionally brewed up off the coast of Africa in order to devastate the black community in New Orleans. Didn't you know that? You're only defending the Dame of Chappaqua because she can sound so convincingly "black." Lol.
Who were those nitwits?
Not surprised you believe a hurricaine was orchestrated by nature to attack the black community of New Orleans.
Much more plausible to believe white people blew up the levees in order to flood the area, because they've done it in the past.
Not defending anyone. Just correcting your ignorance. How exactly does one sound "black?"
OK to make it simple enough even for a dim Prof
1. the elected officials of Flint changed water sources to save money which required an analysis of what the new water source would do to the old pipe, including the lead ones. That's basic water system health and safety protocols. But they ignored them. Bingo - lead contamination. Dummies.
2. I was being sarcastic. Sarcasm is beyond your meager abilities. Not my fault. Clearly, humans cannot (yet) orchestrate hurricanes, let alone target them at specific communities.
3. How exactly does one sound "black?" Ask Hillary. She did it. Perhaps we should term her the Ebonic Plague?
bwahahahaha "Ebonic Plague" 🤣
1. Right....and those elected officials were Progressive Democrats?
And the reason they did all that was because they were "Dummies?" Oh, well, things happen, I guess.
Which community did they decide to alter/change water service to? Why did they not bother to analyze it?
3. No. I'm asking you. YOU made the statement. You did it ;)
Prof, you're too dim to waste time on.
This doesn't even pass the snicker test.
Yes, the Flint officials were Democrats. And then they cried "racism" when their dumb decisions came back and bit them in the ass. Truly and comically predictable. They didn't bother to analyze the effect of the new water source because they were lazy, incompetent scum sucking Democrats. Just like Kevin said.
Wrong.
https://www.npr.org/2021/01/13/956592508/new-charges-in-flint-water-crisis-including-former-michigan-gov-rick-snyder
Why would the Mayor of Flint cry "racism?"
So as usual...the pathological liar Kevin and you are wrong. So yes, PLEASE keep going with this.
Are you an idiot? The baseless charges against Snyder were dismissed.
https://www.cnn.com/2022/12/13/us/flint-michigan-rick-snyder-water-crisis/index.html
As the article correctly notes: Flint’s water problems can be traced back to 2014, when city and state officials switched the city’s water supply from the Detroit water system to the contaminated Flint River in an effort to cut costs, CNN previously reported. That decision exposed residents to extremely high levels of lead and prompted more than a dozen lawsuits against those involved.
Vivek Ramaswamy is from Ohio.
He hates big government incompetence and would fire people.
And Ukraine is not on the top of his foreign policy list.
I don't think that his is a viable candidacy in 2024. However, I think NE would be an excellent choice for VP by President Trump, should be be the.nominee. Vic would be the antidote for age concerns for Trump. Should he unfortunately be incapacitated, Vic's presence could assure that his policies are continued. Not like that fake Christian, establishment worm, Pence, or any other currently. announced or anticipated candidate for the nomination.
Vivek hates government period.
Good for him
John Fetterman chased a black guy down the street with a shotgun and you are a Holocaust denier.
I posted this yesterday in hopes the loony left (comprof an R T) would read it:
I have said this many times Biden doesn't know what planet he is on. This proves it:
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/joe-biden-slammed-for-not-following-instructions-at-poland-event-dummy/ar-AA17MZo1?ocid=msedgntp&cvid=8efb5e6e70a04887a561aba5b8753f4e
Hmmm...I wonder if there would be any examples of Trump doing something similar?
The "professor" is a holocaust denier? I didn't hear that but it doesn't surprise me.
I knew men, honorable men, who liberated some of these death camps. These men are all dead now but they were eye witnesses of these death camps.
I know comprof is contemptable but not that contemplable.
Lol. No. Not a holocaust denier. Another lie by KevinDurant, just like his claim Planned Parenthood is doing castrations.
And Fetterman became the senator for Pennsylvania after having suffered a bad stroke, and now he has checked himself into a hospital for clinical depression - one can’t make this crap up!
"clinical depression"....sure it is.
One look in the mirror explains the depression. But that term is just an excuse for trauma induced by his inability to do his new job. He is a basket case, and Democrats hid his problems until he won the primary. Then Democrats kept him from displaying his incompetence in debates until he screwed that up. The machine got him elected just for his senate vote. Democrats don't care a whit about people like Fetterman.
That’s what was reported what do you think it is ?
Trauma induced by his inability to perform his new job. I suspect a nervous breakdown.
Considering he just had a stroke, a pacemaker and an implantable defibrillator placed (all in May) I find depression to be highly suspicious. Not to mention being admitted to the hospital earlier this month for "feeling lightheaded". His reported diagnoses (afib and stroke) don't match his treatment.
🤣🤣🤣🤣this was really funny!
Lol. I'm sure you left your evidence that I'm a Holicaust denier next to your Planned Parenthood evidence.
You know who is not being exploited? All the black people you claimed are stealing elections, right?
It's cute that a Chauvin/McMichael's fan club member pretends to be upset about Fetterman.
Notice you conveniently misspelled holocaust for plausible deniability.
"It's cute that a Chauvin/McMichael's fan club member pretends to be upset about Fetterman." Evidence? And anyway, Joe let the cat out of the bag when he told the wife she'd be a "great lady in the Senate." Democrats truly believe they can play the game any way they want to.
Lol. Plausible deniablity for what exactly?
Who cares what Biden said to the wife? You think I believe someone who claims black people are stealing elections is legitimately concerned about Fetterman?
CP, you keep making this strawman assertion that KD gives a shit about Fetterman. He has replied to you several times that he does not. Why do you insist on arguing against points that are not being made? Is your reading comprehension so poor, or are you simply unwilling to engage? I don't care to know the answer; it's just amusing that you only seem to work against fictional arguments of your own creation.
No. Not a strawman at all. You need to look up that term. He has repeatedly railed against Fetterman. Good news: He finally admitted that he doesn't actually care. He was just pretending to.
Which is what I said was the case from Day 1. He has zero credibility. All an act. So, not fictional at all.
No way a Chauvin/McMichaels fan club member who refers to Arberry's murder as a "tragedy for everyone involved" could legitimately be outraged/upset re: Fetterman.
KevinDurant is a pathological liar, who believes black people are stealing elections and Planned Parenthood offices are doing castrations.
If DeWine drank one glass of tainted water, that is symbolic. In toxicology, “the dose makes the poison”. Let’s see him drink nothing but local well water from now on.
Flint water crisis. Republican Governor. All over the media.
East Palestine. Democrat Governor. Crickets.
It’s been on MSM for days, all day on msnbc the day you commented.
Mike DeWine is a Republican Governor.
That Republican governor caused the Flint water crisis. He’s garbage.
No he didn't.
The Flint officials caused it because they were careless clowns.
Nowhere did I say he didn't. Just pointing out the obvious. Also Obama came and drank a glass of water and proclaimed it safe.
It takes a long time for it to seep into the ground water. Come back in ten or twenty years and drink the water.
The ground does a pretty good job of filtering all but a few inorganic compounds and elements, fortunately.
No actually the soul it doesn’t do a good job of filtering many organic contaminants…that’s why RCRA, Superfund cleanup occurred. After doing studies while working at US EPA of pesticides in groundwater and years of overseeing groundwater sampling in industrial & marine port cleanups & finding concentrations of nearly every of the 60-90 chemicals for which we tested…I gotta say you are dead wrong. There are thousands of pages is such data in the EPA archives. The people in this town deserve a lot better.
Should say the soil though the accidental typo of soul as in the souls of the matter is the issue here. For no good reason these people are being ignored.
I know - they are being egregiously ignored. I was reacting to some of the specific over reacting. I don't think vinyl chlorides are among the many chemicals that can persist in the ground very long, and even if they are, it would take much longer for them to seep down to the aquifers that their drinking water comes from, if indeed it even is extracted locally. Their immediate problems aren't so easy to deal with as bringing in bottled water when their tap water is still okay. It's grandstanding. It was a trivial nitpick and I shouldn't have made it because it sounded like I was minimizing the seriousness of the event which was not my intention.
Yes the main point is how lightly it appears this is being treated. You may be right-I don’t know the specifics of vinyl chloride, but as you probably know, contaminant breakdown is complex; intermediate compounds can be more or less toxic. And some chemicals can be tasted and smelled at minute concentrations. It’s not clear if sampling data has been made public and scrutinized. Perhaps media reporting has been sketchy and more data has been analyzed than inferred.
But given citizen reports of fish dying etc it sounds like the studies done have been insultingly light weight.
In contrast, in assessing potential health risk, for political reasons, in one study EPA required we assume each person ate pounds of fish livers (not whole fish, the liver!) every day…insane overkill, but it highlights how dismissive the feds are being in this situation.
If I lived there I'd be getting a pool of neighbors ro pay for running regular tap water samples into one of the many independant labs. It's not very expensive. I wouldnt trust any official of any party at this point.
Exactly. Whether wells are impacted will be demonstrated in the long-term.
while pregnant!
You clearly work for Russia I’m reporting you to Homeland Security for your Russianness.
🤣🤣
Off Topic but this is why Bari founded Free Press:
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/biden-administration-accused-of-creating-gag-policy-for-scientific-research/ar-AA17Qmeu?ocid=msedgntp&cvid=dc435e3258fa4a1a8f2fc716743572bb&ei=54
I thought liberals were supposed to be, well, liberals. You know for free sepech.
Yes, we all need to thank Bari. I became interested in her while watching Real Time and have followed her since then. Truly a bright light in the darkness of current journalism.
Close, China is my main employer :D
China a better choice at this stage
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There should be a lol along w the like option. Cause...lol!